Everlanders
by CreativeWritingGirl
Summary: Everlanders have until the summer after their thirteenth birthday to learn the trade of their parents, before they will receive one chance to get into the Academy for the Youth of Everafter, or AYE. It is everyone's greatest wish to attend the Academy, and these Everlanders are ready to make their own wishes come true. Encompasses more than just these two stories
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hi. Me again. So this is WAY different from anything I have ever done before, but we'll see where it goes.**

Maddie sighed in exasperation and put down the partially-stitched blob of felt. Yet another failure. She felt like she really wasn't cut out for hatmaking. It was her father's greatest passion, but not hers. She examined her hands. They were small, with slender, delicate fingers. Her father's hands were strong, riddled with cuts and needlepricks from decades of hatmaking. He even had a scar across the back of his left hand from where he had run it over with a sewing machine. That story used to make Maddie laugh, but ever since she had started her apprenticeship, it just made her sad.

Maddie had been an apprentice for almost a year now. She had started out all right, but her work had slowly declined in quality. Her favorite part was sketching out the hat, with is delicate lines and vibrant colors. The stitching never went as well as she would hope it would. However, Maddie had four more weeks to put together something, _something _to show to the attendance office at the Academy. The Academy for the Youth of Everland was her dream. It was also the dream of just about every other thirteen-year-old in Everland. So Maddie needed to be the best hatmaker. If she was, then she would be accepted. She could take art classes, design classes, and needleworking classes along with her regular academics. AYE was top-notch schooling. Her father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and everyone in her ancestral family had gone to AYE. Maddie couldn't be the first flunk-out in two hundred years!

You only got one chance at admission. You either went as a first-year, at age thirteen, or not at all. Maddie could only hope she would fall into the former category. Not literally fall, like Alex Rabbit next door. Alex had inherited her mother Alice's nasty habit of severe clumsiness. Everyone closed their shutters when the Rabbits walked by. The only thing Alex had going for her was her looks. She had full, cherubic lips and long eyelashes framing chocolate-colored eyes. She had golden curls to that brushed the shoulders of her perfect blue dress. Alex's dress never rode up on the left side and then had a crooked hem, the way Maddie's did. Maddie looked nothing like Alex. However, looking in her bedroom mirror from her desk chair, Maddie stared hard at her reflection. She wasn't ugly. No she was actually quite decent-looking. She had green eyes and a turned-up nose splashed with freckles. She wore her hair in a glossy auburn sheet to her waist, and her mouth had a tendency to curve just a bit too easily into a smirk.

She stood up and stretched. She had been working for hours, and her stomach was rumbling. She slipped downstairs, her bare feet tapping the wooden floors. She tip-tapped her way into the front room, the shop. She and her father lived in a two story apartment in the middle of town. It was tall and green. Upstairs were her father's and her bedrooms. Downstairs was the kitchen and the front room was the shop: "_Hatter's Hats: Sales, Tailoring, and Repairs_". This was the message that was painted in gold lettering on the wooden sign by the street.

Maddie turned the corner, passing the door to the kitchen, and emerged from the door behind the counter in the shop. According to the grandfather clock on the wall, it was nearing four-o'clock. Golden sunlight streamed through the front display window, confirming this. Outside, the last few shoppers retired to their homes as those who worked out-of-house drove by, in a hurry to get to their families and dinner table.

Just then, her father walked out of the workroom door, across the room.

"Maddie!" he cried, the sun lighting his auburn curls that were much like hers. "Why don't you come give me a had with this custom model for James Charming?"

"Which one is he?" She asked, following her dad into the workroom. The Charmings were a family of four brothers whom were all married and all lived in Alpha.

"The youngest," her father replied. "He's married to Aurora and his daughters are Rose and Briar. They live in West Alpha. Now, are you going to help me or not?"

They went into the workroom. Ribbons, fabric, needles, thread and glue covered the tables. Sitting on a plaster mold of a head was Mr. Charming's hat. The marksmanship was beautiful. The hat was grey silk with a blue lining. The outer seams were visible, a rare, stylistic thing in hats. They were blue as well, creating a beautiful contrast to the simple grey.

"Dad," she breathed. "This is amazing."

He smiled. "I thought you would enjoy it."

Maddie helped him carry it to the sales counter, box it up, and label it for pickup.

Maddie sat down on the stool behind the counter. _If, by some miracle_, she thought, _I got into AYE, I am really going to miss this place._

**Review PLEASE!**


	2. Chapter 2

Briar yawned. How many different types of roses could there be? Memorizing names of plants, trees, and flowers wasn't one of her strong suits. I mean seriously, what is the point of remembering all the names, just to use them in the garden to talk to the plants, using the scientific names? She thought. What was the one she was supposed to be studying for, for her test tomorrow? Sometimes she just felt like she could punch her mother. Her crazed obsession for plants and gardening-Briar felt like enough was enough!

Oh yeah, she remembered. Rosa macdub. Red Rose. Ugh. There were so many types of roses, and she had to memorize all of them for this week's test that her mother had organized. There was a test every week, some crazy teaching method her mother dreamt up. Last week it was tulips, the week before it was marigolds and chrysanthemums, and now it was ROSES. Roses, roses, roses, roses, roses! She wished she could forget the stupid word. And her mom didn't even give her a dumb textbook! At least with a textbook, she could study every night, without having to search her memory for hours, trying to remember the names. But no, Mother insisted, insisted that she memorize them, just by listening to Mother ramble them off.

"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak!"

Briar couldn't stand it. Her little sister Rose was always the best of the two, always rattling off the seemingly endless list of names, names, names. Liliaceae tulipa, Bellis perennis, etc, etc. she couldn't stand Rose. Rose was always looking like the three P's: prim, proper, and-most importantly-perfect. It was horrible. Rose had perfect blond curls, blue-green eyes, rosy cheeks, and the sweetest smile. Briar had one blonde braid down her back, childish blonde bangs, and eyes like mud.

Sighing again, she turned back to her list she'd been making. _Screw it,_ she thought. She got up and went to the window. She was so done.

Her mother appeared in the doorway.

"Briar," she said sternly. "Come down for dinner. Now."

"You don't have to make it sound like a battle command," she murmured, but her mother was oblivious.

**A/N I really just want to know that people care that I'm writing this. It has SIX VIEWS. Alice in WonderlandxSleeping Beauty inst the most popular crossover, but it is something. C'mon people, just REVIEW!**


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